Creative Writing

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2014-15 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu/.

About the Program

Minor

The Creative Writing Program is an interdisciplinary minor program, offered by the Office of Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies in the Undergraduate Division of the College of Letters and Science. The approved courses students take to satisfy the minor course requirements are offered by over thirty departments on campus. Interested undergraduate students in any major may earn an interdepartmental minor in Creative Writing by completing the requirements listed in the Minor Requirements tab. For further information, please also see the Creative Writing Minor Student Handbook  and the program's Frequently Asked Questions pages .

There is no major program in Creative Writing.

Declaring the Minor

Students petition to minor in Creative Writing during the semester they intend to graduate. For further information on declaring the minor, please see the program's website .

Students who are interested in the Creative Writing Minor are encouraged to subscribe to the Creative Writing Minor email newsletter to receive important news about the minor, including special approval courses for the minor that are not published on the website. To subscribe, email demir@berkeley.edu .

Visit Program Website

Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

  1. All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
  2. A minimum of three of the upper-division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
  3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
  4. Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth Requirement, for Letters and Science students.
  5. No more than one upper-division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
  6. All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which you plan to graduate. If you cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, please see a College of Letters and Science adviser.
  7. All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)

Course Requirements

Upper-division
Select three courses in Creative Writing (see below) 1
Select two courses in literature (see below)
1

 At least two of the three writing courses must be taken at UC Berkeley.

Students may be allowed to include courses that are not on the following lists with the approval of the Creative Writing Minor Faculty Adviser. It is the responsibility of the student to provide the Faculty Adviser with documentary evidence to support the claim of course eligibility. Contact the Creative Writing Minor Coordinator at demir@berkeley.edu  for more information.

Creative Writing

AFRICAM 156ACPoetry for the People: Introduction to the Art of Poetry4
AFRICAM 158APoetry for the People: The Writing and Teaching of Poetry4
AFRICAM 158BPoetry for the People: Practicum4
AMERSTD C174Visual Autobiography4
ASAMST 173Creative Writing4
CHICANO 149Course Not Available4
COLWRIT 130Introduction to the Craft of Creative Writing4
ENGLISH 141Modes of Writing (Exposition, Fiction, Verse, Etc.)4
ENGLISH 143AShort Fiction4
ENGLISH 143BVerse4
ENGLISH 143CLong Narrative4
ENGLISH 143NProse Nonfiction4
ENGLISH 143TPoetry Translation Workshop4
ENGLISH C143VVisual Autobiography4
ENV DES 101AWriting about Environmental Design: Short Compositions3-4
ENV DES 101BWriting about Environmental Design: One Longer Composition3-4
FILM 180ACourse Not Available
FILM 180BCourse Not Available4
SPANISH 102CAdvanced Writing Workshop3
THEATER 139Course Not Available4
UGIS C135Visual Autobiography4
VIS STD C185AVisual Autobiography4

Literature

AFRICAM 142AThird World Cinema4
AFRICAM 142ACRace and American Film4
AFRICAM 142BCourse Not Available4
AFRICAM 142DCourse Not Available4
AFRICAM C143CBlack Theatre Workshop3
AFRICAM 150BAfrican American Literature 1920 to Present3
AFRICAM C151BContemporary African American Drama4
AFRICAM 152FNeo-Slave Narratives3
AFRICAM C153ACourse Not Available4
AFRICAM C153BCourse Not Available4
AFRICAM 153CNovels of Toni Morrison3
AFRICAM 154Course Not Available4
AFRICAM 155Literature of the Caribbean: Significant Themes4
AFRICAM 159Special Topics in African American Literature1-4
AFRICAM 160Course Not Available4
AFRICAM 161Course Not Available4
AFRICAM 162Course Not Available4
AMERSTD C152Native American Literature4
ANTHRO 160Course Not Available4
ANTHRO 160ACForms of Folklore4
ANTHRO C160Course Not Available4
ANTHRO 161Narrative Folklore4
ANTHRO 162Topics in Folklore4
ARABIC 104BClassical Arabic Prose3
ARABIC 105BClassical Arabic Poetry3
ARABIC 111ASurvey of Arabic Literature (in Arabic)6
ARABIC 111BSurvey of Arabic Literature (in Arabic)3
ARCH 136The Literature of Space3
ASAMST 171Asian Americans in Film and Video4
ASAMST 172Asian American Literature4
ASAMST 175Contemporary Narratives on the Philippines and the United States3
ASAMST 176Genre in Asian American Literature4
ASAMST 179Course Not Available4
ASAMST 180Course Not Available4
ASAMST 181Chinese American Literature4
ASAMST 183Korean American Literature4
BUDDSTD C124Course Not Available4
BUDDSTD C140Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts4
CELTIC 105BCourse Not Available4
CELTIC 119BWelsh and Arthurian Literature of the Middle Ages4
CELTIC 125Irish Literature in Translation4
CELTIC 138Irish Literature4
CELTIC 139Irish Literature4
CELTIC 146AMedieval Welsh Language and Literature4
CELTIC 146BMedieval Welsh Language and Literature4
CELTIC C168Celtic Mythology and Oral Tradition4
CHICANO 135ALatino Narrative Film: to the 1980s4
CHICANO 135BLatino Narrative Film Since 19904
CHICANO 135CLatino Documentary Film4
CHICANO 141Chicana Feminist Writers and Discourse4
CHICANO 142Major Chicano Writers4
CHICANO 143Chicano and Latin American Literature3
CHICANO 148Course Not Available4
CHINESE 101Fourth-Year Chinese Readings: Literature4
CHINESE 120Ancient Chinese Prose4
CHINESE 122Ancient Chinese Poetry4
CHINESE 134Readings in Classical Chinese Poetry4
CHINESE 136Readings in Medieval Prose4
CHINESE 138Course Not Available4
CHINESE C140Readings in Chinese Buddhist Texts4
CHINESE 155Readings in Vernacular Chinese Literature4
CHINESE 156Modern Chinese Literature4
CHINESE 157Contemporary Chinese Literature4
CLASSIC 124Classical Poetics4
COM LIT 100Introduction to Comparative Literature4
COM LIT 120The Biblical Tradition in Western Literature4
COM LIT 151The Ancient Mediterranean World4
COM LIT 152The Middle Ages4
COM LIT 153The Renaissance4
COM LIT 154Eighteenth- and 19th-Century Literature4
COM LIT 155The Modern Period4
COM LIT 156Fiction and Culture of the Americas4
COM LIT 165Myth and Literature4
COM LIT 171Topics in Modern Greek Literature4
COM LIT 190Senior Seminar in Comparative Literature4
DUTCH 140Topics in Dutch Literature3
DUTCH C164The Indonesian Connection: Dutch Literature About the Indies in English Translation4
DUTCH 166Anne Frank and After: Dutch Literature of the Holocaust in English Translation4
EA LANG 100Course Not Available4
EA LANG 105Dynamics of Romantic Core Values in East Asian Premodern Literature and Contemporary Film4
EA LANG 106Expressing the Ineffable in China and Beyond: The Making of Meaning in Poetic Writing4
EA LANG 107War, Empire, and Literature in East Asia4
EA LANG 108Revising the Classics: Chinese and Greek Poetry in Translation4
ENGLISH 105Anglo-Saxon England4
ENGLISH C107The English Bible As Literature4
ENGLISH 110Medieval Literature4
ENGLISH 111Chaucer4
ENGLISH 112Middle English Literature4
ENGLISH 114AEnglish Drama4
ENGLISH 114BEnglish Drama4
ENGLISH 115AThe English Renaissance4
ENGLISH 115BThe English Renaissance4
ENGLISH 117AShakespeare4
ENGLISH 117BShakespeare4
ENGLISH 117FShakespeare and Film4
ENGLISH 117JShakespeare4
ENGLISH N117SShakespeare3
ENGLISH 117SShakespeare4
ENGLISH 117TShakespeare in the Theatre4
ENGLISH 118Milton4
ENGLISH 119Literature of the Restoration and Early Eighteenth Century4
ENGLISH 120Literature of the Later 18th Century4
ENGLISH 121Romantic Period4
ENGLISH 122Victorian Period4
ENGLISH 125AThe English Novel4
ENGLISH 125BThe English Novel4
ENGLISH 125CThe European Novel4
ENGLISH 125DThe 20th-Century Novel4
ENGLISH 125EThe Contemporary Novel4
ENGLISH 126British Literature: 1900-19454
ENGLISH 127Modern Poetry4
ENGLISH 130AAmerican Literature: Before 18004
ENGLISH 130BAmerican Literature: 1800-18654
ENGLISH 130CAmerican Literature: 1865-19004
ENGLISH 130DAmerican Literature: 1900-19454
ENGLISH 131American Poetry4
ENGLISH 132American Novel4
ENGLISH 133AAfrican American Literature and Culture Before 19174
ENGLISH 133BAfrican American Literature and Culture Since 19174
ENGLISH 133TTopics in African American Literature and Culture4
ENGLISH 134Contemporary Literature4
ENGLISH 135ACLiterature of American Cultures4
ENGLISH C136Topics in American Studies4
ENGLISH 137AChicana/o Literature and Culture to 19104
ENGLISH 137TTopics in Chicana/o Literature and Culture4
ENGLISH 138Studies in World Literature in English4
ENGLISH 139The Cultures of English4
ENGLISH 152Women Writers4
ENGLISH 165Special Topics4
ENGLISH 165ACSpecial Topics in American Cultures4
ENGLISH 166Special Topics4
ENGLISH 166ACSpecial Topics in American Cultures4
ENGLISH 170Literature and the Arts4
ENGLISH 171Literature and Sexual Identity4
ENGLISH 173The Language and Literature of Films4
ENGLISH 174Literature and History4
ENGLISH 175Literature and Disability4
ENGLISH 176Literature and Popular Culture4
ENGLISH 177Literature and Philosophy4
ENGLISH 179Literature and Linguistics4
ENGLISH 180AAutobiography4
ENGLISH 180CComedy4
ENGLISH 180JThe Essay4
ENGLISH 180SSatire4
ENGLISH 180TTragedy4
ENGLISH N180AAutobiography3
ENGLISH N180HShort Story3
ENGLISH N180ZScience Fiction3
ENGLISH 180EThe Epic4
ENGLISH 180HShort Story4
ENGLISH 180LLyric Verse4
ENGLISH 180NThe Novel4
ENGLISH 180RThe Romance4
ENGLISH 180ZScience Fiction4
ETH STD 100Comparative Ethnic Literature in America4
ETH STD 103BCourse Not Available4
ETH STD 122ACEthnicity and Race in Contemporary American Films4
FILM 100History of Film Theory4
FILM 105Senior Seminar4
FILM 108Special Topics in Film Genre4
FILM 129History of Avant-Garde Film4
FILM 140Special Topics in Film4
FILM 151Auteur Theory4
FILM 160National Cinema4
FILM 185Narrative Production4
FRENCH 112AMedieval Literature4
FRENCH 112BMedieval Literature4
FRENCH 114ALate Medieval Literature4
FRENCH 114BCourse Not Available4
FRENCH 116ASixteenth-Century Literature: Marot to Montaigne4
FRENCH 116BCourse Not Available4
FRENCH 117ASeventeenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 117BSeventeenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 118AEighteenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 118BEighteenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 119ANineteenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 119BNineteenth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 120ATwentieth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 120BTwentieth-Century Literature4
FRENCH 121ALiterary Themes, Genres, and Structures4
FRENCH 121BLiterary Themes, Genres, and Structures4
FRENCH 123Prose Fiction4
FRENCH 126Senior Seminar4
FRENCH 140BFrench Literature in English Translation4
FRENCH 140CFrench Literature in English Translation4
FRENCH 140DFrench Literature in English Translation4
FRENCH 150AWomen in French Literature4
FRENCH 150BWomen in French Literature4
FRENCH 151AFrancophone Literature4
FRENCH 151BFrancophone Literature4
FRENCH 170French Films4
FRENCH 172APsychoanalytic Theory and Literature4
FRENCH 175ALiterature and the Visual Arts4
FRENCH 177AHistory and Criticism of Film4
FRENCH 177BHistory and Criticism of Film4
FRENCH 185Literature and Colonialism4
GWS 125Women and Film4
GWS 126Film, Feminism, and the Avant-Garde4
GWS C146Course Not Available4
GWS C146ACultural Representations of Sexualities: Queer Literary Culture4
GWS C153BCourse Not Available
GERMAN C106Literacy through Literature3
GERMAN 108Literary Translation3
GERMAN 110The Literature of the Middle Ages3
GERMAN 112Early Modern Literature3
GERMAN 123From 1800 to the Present3
GERMAN 131Goethe4
GERMAN 140Romanticism3
GERMAN 147German Drama and Opera4
GERMAN 148Topics in Narrative3
GERMAN 151Eighteenth- to 21st-Century German Poetry4
GERMAN 152Modern Literature3
GERMAN 155Course Not Available4
GERMAN 166Course Not Available4
GERMAN 167Course Not Available4
GERMAN 168Course Not Available4
GERMAN 175BUndergraduate Seminars: 20th-Century Poetry3
GERMAN 182German Cinema in Exile4
GERMAN 186Transnational Cinemas4
GREEK 100Plato and Attic Prose4
GREEK 101Homer4
GREEK 102Drama and Society4
GREEK 105The Greek New Testament4
GREEK 115Archaic Poetry4
GREEK 116Greek Drama4
GREEK 117Hellenistic Poets4
GREEK 120Herodotus4
GREEK 121Thucydides4
GREEK 122Attic Oratory4
GREEK 123Plato and Aristotle4
GREEK 125Greek Literature of the Hellenistic and Imperial Periods4
HEBREW 104AModern Hebrew Literature and Culture3
HEBREW 104BModern Hebrew Literature and Culture3
HIN-URD 101AReadings in Modern Hindi3
HIN-URD 101BReadings in Modern Hindi3
ISF 100CWord and Image4
ISF C100CWord and Image4
ITALIAN 103History of Italian Culture4
ITALIAN 104Reading Italian Literature4
ITALIAN 109Dante's Commedia (in Italian)4
ITALIAN 110Literature and Culture of the 13th and 14th Centuries4
ITALIAN112Course Not Available4
ITALIAN 115Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture4
ITALIAN 117Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature4
ITALIAN 120Topics in Italian Studies4
ITALIAN 130ADante's Inferno (in English)4
ITALIAN 130BDante's Purgatorio and Paradiso (in English)4
ITALIAN 163Special Topics in Italian Literature4
ITALIAN 170The Italian Cinema: History, Genres, Authors4
ITALIAN 175Film and Literature (in English)4
JAPAN 100AAdvanced Japanese5
JAPAN 100BAdvanced Japanese5
JAPAN 103Fourth-Year Readings: Japanese Literature4
JAPAN 130Classical Japanese Poetry4
JAPAN 132Premodern Japanese Diary (Nikki) Literature4
JAPAN 140Heian Prose4
JAPAN 142Course Not Available4
JAPAN 144Edo Literature4
JAPAN 155Modern Japanese Literature4
JAPAN 159Contemporary Japanese Literature4
JAPAN 170Classical Japanese Literature in Translation4
JAPAN 172Course Not Available4
JAPAN 180Ghosts and the Modern Literary Imagination4
JAPAN 185Introduction to Japanese Cinema4
KOREAN 101Fourth-Year Readings: Korean Literature4
KOREAN 130Genre and Occasion in Traditional Poetry4
KOREAN 140Narrating Persons and Objects in Traditional Korean Prose4
KOREAN 150Modern Korean Poetry4
KOREAN 155Modern Korean Fiction4
KOREAN 157Contemporary Korean Literature4
KOREAN 180Critical Approaches to Modern Korean Literature4
LATIN 100Republican Prose4
LATIN 101Vergil4
LATIN 102Lyric and Society4
LATIN 115Roman Drama4
LATIN 116Lucretius, Vergil's <Georgics>4
LATIN 117Course Not Available4
LATIN 119Latin Epic4
LATIN 120Latin Prose to AD 144
LATIN 121Tacitus4
LATIN 122Post-Augustan Prose4
LATIN 140Medieval Latin4
LATIN 155AReadings in Medieval Latin4
MUSIC 128QThe European/American Art Song3
NATAMST C152Native American Literature4
NATAMST 158Native Americans and the Cinema4
NE STUD 105AAncient Mesopotamian Documents and Literature3
NE STUD 113Gilgamesh: King, Hero, and God4
NE STUD 132Biblical Poetry4
NE STUD 139Modern Jewish Literatures4
NE STUD 155Wonder and the Fantastic: <The Thousand and One Nights> in World Literary Imagination3
NE STUD 162AHistory of Persian Literature4
NE STUD 162BHistory of Persian Literature4
PERSIAN 101AReadings in Persian Literature3
PERSIAN 101BReadings in Persian Literature3
PERSIAN 102AReadings in Classical Persian Prose3
PERSIAN 102BReadings in Classical Persian Prose4
PERSIAN 103AClassical Persian Poetry3
PERSIAN 103BClassical Persian Poetry3
PERSIAN 104BContemporary Persian Literature4
PERSIAN 105Modern Analytical Prose in Persian3
PORTUG 102Readings in Portuguese3
PORTUG 104Introduction to Brazilian Literature3
PORTUG 107BSurvey of Portuguese Literature3
PORTUG 114Course Not Available4
PORTUG 128Twentieth-Century Brazilian Literature3
PORTUG 135Studies in Luso-Brazilian Literature3
RELIGST C108Scandinavian Myth and Religion4
RELIGST C109Celtic Mythology and Oral Tradition4
RELIGST C119The English Bible As Literature4
RELIGST C165Hindu Mythology4
RELIGST C166India's Great Epics: The Mahabharata and the Ramayana4
RHETOR 131TGenre in Film and Literature4
RHETOR 121Rhetoric of Fiction4
RHETOR 124Rhetoric of Poetry4
RHETOR 127Novel, Society, and Politics4
RHETOR 130Novel into Film4
RHETOR 135TSelected Topics in Film4
RHETOR 112Rhetoric of Narrative Genres in Nonliterate Societies4
RHETOR 129Rhetoric of Autobiography4
RHETOR 129ACAutobiography and American Individualism4
RHETOR 156Rhetoric of the Political Novel4
SCANDIN 106The Works of Hans Christian Andersen4
SCANDIN C107Plays of Ibsen4
SCANDIN C108Strindberg4
SCANDIN C114Word and Image4
SCANDIN 115Studies in Drama and Film4
SCANDIN 116Studies in Prose4
SCANDIN 120The Novel in Scandinavian4
SCANDIN 125Old Norse Literature4
SCANDIN 150Studies in Scandinavian Literature4
SCANDIN C160Scandinavian Myth and Religion4
SCANDIN 165Scandinavian Folklore4
SCANDIN 170Arctic Folklore and Mythology in Nordic Lands4
SLAVIC 131Literature, Art, and Society in 20th-Century Russia4
SLAVIC 133The Novel in Russia and the West4
SLAVIC 134AGogol4
SLAVIC 134CDostoevsky4
SLAVIC 134DTolstoy4
SLAVIC 134EChekhov4
SLAVIC 134FNabokov4
SLAVIC 134GTolstoy and Dostoevsky4
SLAVIC 134RResearch in Russian Literature1
SLAVIC 138Topics in Russian and Soviet Film4
SLAVIC 147AEast Slavic Folklore3
SLAVIC 147BBalkan Folklore3
SLAVIC 150Polish Literature and Intellectual Trends3
SLAVIC 151Readings in Polish Literature4
SLAVIC 160Course Not Available4
SLAVIC 161Course Not Available4
SLAVIC 162Course Not Available4
SLAVIC 170Survey of Yugoslav Literatures3
SLAVIC 171Readings in Yugoslav Literatures4
SLAVIC 181Readings in Russian Literature4
SLAVIC 182Pushkin4
S ASIAN 121Classical Indian Literature in Translation4
S ASIAN 124Modern Indian Literature4
S ASIAN C140Hindu Mythology4
S ASIAN C142India's Great Epics: The Mahabharata and the Ramayana4
S ASIAN 152Course Not Available4
SEASIAN 128Introduction to Modern Indonesian and Malaysian Literature in Translation4
SEASIAN 129Mainland Southeast Asian Literature4
SEASIAN 130Articulations of the Female in Indonesia4
SPANISH 104ASurvey of Spanish American Literature3
SPANISH 104BSurvey of Spanish American Literature3
SPANISH 107ASurvey of Spanish Literature3
SPANISH 107BSurvey of Spanish Literature3
SPANISH 109Spanish Drama of the 16th and 17th Centuries3
SPANISH 111ACervantes3
SPANISH 111BCervantes3
SPANISH 114Course Not Available4
SPANISH 115Spanish Poetry3
SPANISH 117The Picaresque Novel3
SPANISH 135Studies in Hispanic Literature3
SPANISH 135WStudies in Hispanic Literature - Writing Intensive3
SPANISH 185Senior Course in Hispanic Literature3
TAMIL 101AReadings in Tamil4
TAMIL 101BReadings in Tamil4
THAI 101AAdvanced Thai3
THAI 101BAdvanced Thai3
THEATER C107Plays of Ibsen4
THEATER C108Strindberg4
THEATER 126Performance Literatures4
THEATER C131BContemporary African American Drama4
THEATER 162Fundamentals of Stage Directing3
THEATER C183BResearch-to-Performance Laboratory3
THEATER C183CBlack Theatre Workshop3
TIBETAN 110AIntensive Readings in Tibetan4
TIBETAN 110BIntensive Readings in Tibetan4
TURKISH 101AReadings in Modern Turkish3
TURKISH 101BReadings in Modern Turkish3
YIDDISH 103Readings in Yiddish3

Contact Information

Creative Writing Group Minor

231 Evans Hall (Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies)

Visit Program Website

Program Director and Faculty Adviser

Lyn Hejinian, PhD (Department of English)

406 Wheeler Hall

lynhejinian@gmail.com

Minor Coordinator and Student Adviser

Laura Demir

235 Evans Hall

Phone: 510-642-2363

demir@berkeley.edu

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